Nine times, huh?

Do you like it better with Snoop and me?

You know what, it's pretty good with Snoop and--

[LAUGHTER]

--my homegirl Martha.

You know what I mean?

Ellen don't worry about nothing.

They doing a great job--

Oh, OK.

--great job.

Thank you.

Well, you first met me on our show.

And when did you first meet Snoop?

First time I met Snoop, he was doing a release party

for Doggystyle on a boat--

On a boat.

--cruise, some kind of yacht.

When he was first starting?

When you first started.

You know, I quickly said, what's up, to Snoop,

got off that yacht.

Because I knew it was going to be lit--

[LAUGHTER]

--before it left the dock.

I'm like, man, I'm not getting in the water with Death Row.

[LAUGHTER]

And so it was cool, you know?

It showed a lot of love.

You always show a lot of love.

It's nothing but love and respect.

You know, I've seen this man come a long way

and very proud of my man Snoop.

Thank you.

[CHEERING]

What's your favorite moment with Snoop?

Oh, man, we got a million moments.

You know, it's just going on tour with Snoop.

I love touring with Snoop.

You know, Snoop, he has a party backstage before he

hit the stage.

I have been experiencing that backstage.

Yeah.

I'm across the hall.

And I'm having fun.

Yeah.

I gave her that green-room experience.

Nothing wrong with that.

You know, I got to take her to my secret garden.

You know, I've always been at hers.

Let me take her to mine.

Well, to bring up a sad subject, but the last time

you were on Ellen, you were with Kobe.

Yeah.

What did you love about him?

Man, what I loved about Kobe is that he

wasn't just satisfied with God's given talents, you know?

He wanted to even be better than the talents that God gave him.

And so that's amazing.

That's an amazing person.

Because most people say, look, you know, I got these gifts.

I'm going to just kick back and just cruise.

And he showed you, no, you can always take it even further.

And when you think you're at the top,

you can even take it further.

So we love Kobe's spirit more than anything.

He was finding other ways to personify hisself off

the basketball court.

And being a leader, like the young generation of basketball

players all look up to him.

The young generation of rappers all look up to him.

Even rappers like myself, who was older than him,

I looked up to him.

Because he showed me ways on how to be a better person, a better

father, a better man, you know, going from that to this.

So he was just a great leader, a great role model.

And we going to miss him dearly.

We send love to Vanessa and the kids

and just want to put that love angel around them

and make sure they get through this time right here.

So you dreamed about Kobe playing in your basketball

league.

And, you know, I'm a fan of your basketball league.

The Big3.

Yes, sir.

Give it up for the Big3, y'all.

Yes.

[CHEERING]

But now, I heard you changed the name of it to the Fireball3.

Well, it was.

It's still the Big3.

But Fireball3 is what we play, you know.

Oh, OK.

We started off trying to professionalize three-on-three.

But then we realized we had invented a whole new sport.

So why not lean into that?

Like the UFC is not called super boxing.

No.

It's called the UFC.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

So we got the Big3.

We play Fireball3.

Everybody else playing basketball.

That's a beautiful thing, man.

I'm so, so proud of your league.

Because I seen where the idea came from

and how you've given these NBA players,

who careers are at an end, but they still able to have fun,

are still able to come play basketball, the sport

that they love.

And the [INAUDIBLE] is you filling them up.

When does the season start?

It start June 20th.

It's great.

Because, you know, we got new rules,

got what's called the bring-the-fire rule,

where players can go one-on-one--

Ooh!

--which is very cool.

And it's just been a great experience.

You know, we have great sponsors.

You know, I can't wait till the summer, man.

One more question, the Lakers going

to win it all or not this year?

Yes, sir.

[CHEERING]

You see me.

I'm ready.

Right.

We're going to do it for Kobe.

Right.

[APPLAUSE]

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

On that note, when we come back, we're

going to see how good you are at Fireball.

Uh-oh.

Oh, boy.

Uh-oh.